O National Geographic Society
587
Kodachromes by Stewart Fern
Dressed in Royal Robes, Honolulu Celebrates Each June 11 as King Kamehameha Day
For this Territorial holiday, observed almost a century, islanders like old-time costumes. Once only the nobility
could wear the capes fashioned from the gorgeous feathers of the o-o and iiwi birds. Now these birds are presum
ably extinct, and the making of feather capes is a lost art. A priceless heirloom is worn by the man (above), but
the boy and the woman (page 586) have cloth and paper substitutes. Each group participating in the Kame
hameha parade chooses its queen, who, with her garlanded courtiers, rides in state on her float (below).